About Natural Beauty

When my mother decided I was old enough to wear makeup, we took a trip to my local health food store, and I was allowed to try out natural lip gloss, foundation, and eyeshadow to my heart’s content. Since that time, I’ve floated back and forth between brands and products, all the while teaching myself more and more about the sketchy chemicals in oh-so-many conventional products. I’ve worked at a health food store, and also as an editor at a natural health magazine, always learning as much on the subject as possible.

These days, going green is far from niche. Although natural health food stores are still wonderful places to discover green beauty finds, a lot of great natural products can now be found at drugstores, grocery stores, spas, and almost any speciality beauty store. The formulas have also evolved, so not only is there more selection, but they’re also nicer to wear and work better. Natural beauty can finally compete with their conventional counterparts!

Why go au naturel?

The reasons for choosing natural beauty products are numerous:

Many chemicals in conventional beauty products are harmful to our health, as well as to the environment and wildlife. Ultimately, the government doesn’t protect us from harmful ingredients as much as we’d like to think it does.

The dose may not, as they say, “make the poison.” New research is showing that chemicals may have different effects at different concentrations, and some have negative effects in small doses.

Contrary to what we often think, many ingredients in products used topically can indeed be absorbed internally.

Believe it or not, ingredient lists don’t always tell us everything that’s in the products.

For a full discussion of these reasons, please check out my article on the subject: Cosmetic Safety.

A few of my favourite articles:

I’ve been fortunate to be able to write quite a few articles on the subject of natural beauty and skin care. Here are a few of my favourites:

Cosmetic Safety: Read for an in-depth look at why we should be avoiding chemicals in cosmetics.

New Beauty Trends: Here’s a fun discussion of how natural cosmetics have evolved, and are now competing with conventional cosmetics.

Best Hair Practices: Natural beauty includes hair care too! In this article, I’ve interviewed hair experts on how to take care of your luxurious locks.